A Quiet Evening in Kinsale
Even on a calm evening when I took this photo, a moored boat moves about if given enough time. This long exposure shows the slight movements that show the water isn’t quite as still. There’s no wind to speak of, the surface looks like polished slate, and yet the boat is nodding away to itself,…
Eye of the Bison
I didn’t know there were bison at Fota Wildlife Park, but near the end of my walk there with Henry we stopped at a field containing these large beasts! I wonder if they were overheating in their winter coats in the warm April sunshine, but I suspect the cold wind that blew through at intervals…
First Light at Cappagh
Cappagh Beach at half-six in the morning is colder than I’d planned for. We’d driven down to Kerry the night before and I was up in the dark, heading out the door and shared the journey from Dingle with Freddie at the wheel. I forgot my wellies, but while I cursed my lack of preparation,…
When a Building Came Down
August 2009, Castle Street in Cork. A building that had been under renovation gave up and came down, taking a chunk of the terrace with it and flattening a silver Peugeot 206 that had the misfortune ofbeing parked on the pavement. The roof is caved in like a tin can someone stood on, with a…
Elvis the Taxi Driver
Derry “Elvis” Coughlan is a local taxi driver in Cork. Here he was on St. Patrick’s Street in 2021. He was walking towards an older man with bags of shopping who would probably need a lift home. I don’t think I’ve seen Derry around since then. Not someone who appears to have an online presence…
An Emerald at Fota
This handsome iguana was lounging on a branch in the hothouse at Fota Wildlife Park this morning. He didn’t seem bothered by the passing crowds: kids, parents and inquisitive photographers with the wrong lenses. A bit of cropping and I had the frame I wanted. That red-rimmed stare never left me though, watching from the…
Lá Fhéile Pádraig in Fire and Light
We were standing across from Cobh in the park on Haulbowline Island to photograph the fireworks display over Cobh on St. Patrick’s Day this year. With a camera on a tripod, timing a fireworks display is basically an exercise in optimistic guesswork. When I see the firework launch, I press the shutter button, hope a…
Where the Dingle Coast Meets the Swell
Clogher Beach in early March is not what you’d call hospitable. This little cove on the Dingle Peninsula opens straight onto the Atlantic, and the swell hits the slate head-on; the spray goes up twice as high as the wave itself. I was there with Blarney Photography Club, all of us strung out along the…
Moya Brennan at Cork Opera House
The news broke this morning that Moya Brennan passed away yesterday, and this photo has been on my mind ever since I heard. I took it at Cork Opera House on the 2nd of March 2020, during Clannad’s Farewell Tour. What a strange, loaded date that turned out to be. Barely a fortnight later the…
Gold on the Mountain at Gougane Barra
The cloud had been sitting on the mountains all morning like a hat pulled down over its eyes, and then for about fifteen minutes the sun broke through low and side-on and set the entire rock face above Gougane Barra on fire. The golds and ambers were almost absurd. It was the kind of light…
The Lone Boat at O’Sullivan’s Cascade
There was a single boat on our little corner of the Lakes of Killarney. I’d walked down from O’Sullivan’s Cascade to join other photographers from Blarney Photography Club. They were busy photographing the same scene you see here and everything around them. We were enjoying the afternoon sunlight on a calm October day last year.
Sorry, no diesel
I walked past Blarney Autos this morning and clocked the “SORRY NO DIESEL” sign on a car blocking the diesel pumps there. The fuel protests have been rumbling on around the country for days now, refineries are ringed by placards, and the knock-on is landing on forecourts like this one. It doesn’t help that roughly…